It seems that Ubisoft is going with a fairly unique looting system for The Division. It's been stressed in all of the articles and videos that the best loot will be in the multiplayer part of the game (called the Dark Zone). The rules for the loot are simple: any loot that's picked up in the Dark Zone is up for grabs by any other player until it has been successfully extracted. Basically players will need to make their way to a static defined extraction zone (that's seen by all players on their maps) and count down a timer as their gear gets extracted. The extraction piece seems pretty tense and harrowing as obviously all players will converge to this point, making it a pretty hot spot for everyone to hang around. If a team is attempting an extraction, that means they probably have some pretty sweet loot. I bet that timer will feel like it's going at a snail's pace. It's important to note that any inventory that you bring into the Dark Zone remains yours; it can't be looted by other players (both items that originated from outside of the Dark Zone and successfully extracted loot). I feel that this is important as online games have a way of attracting overpowered griefers. Knowing that my hard obtained loot is safe once I've taken it out of the Dark Zone bodes well in my mind.
I don't know. I mean the game is already supposed to be like this kinda, so I really don't get why did they put this PVP system in instanced areas instead of doing it directly into the open world. Kinda defeats the purpose of going basically anywhere else if that's where the good stuff is. Unless that's some kind of end game area, but I don't think that's the case.
It is open world in the sense that nothing will be closed off when you start the game. You can explore literally anywhere. And the transition from single player to the Dark Zone is seamless, without a loading screen. There won't be an offline campaign mode for single player since the game is really for co-op and PvP but the computer controlled enemies will scale based on how many players are in a group. The AI enemies will drop loot too, so I believe you don't have to go in the Dark Zone if you don't want to, but the best loot will be there...
Hmm, this seems like quite a novelty! I can't really say right now how this is going to impact the game, don't know if this loot system will be that useful for the players. It'll probably make them even angrier if something doesn't work out.
Maybe I haven't made myself clear. I'll try again. This is a loot based game, right? So players will tend to go where you get the best stuff in the entire open world. If they are telling you that the dark zones will always give you the best stuff no matter what, why would you go anywhere else? What's stopping them from trying their luck every time? It's not like you'll lose your equipment, and going literally anywhere else is a waste of time in comparison. Sure people will probably try to kill you to get the loot you found but might as well try, right? I'm afraid of this kind of situation, where the game will be empty in every single area except for the dark zones. I hope they'll balance it out with something of equal value somewhere else on the map.
You're right, it is a loot based system and they did say that the Dark Zone will have the best loot. It's safe to say that most of the action will be happening there in the PvP instance. My guess (and it's only that, since we haven't heard anything from Ubisoft) is that there will be a lot of the story missions and side-missions in the single player portion of the game. That will probably be where you get a sense of the game play and controls until you jump into the Dark Zone. Like you, I'm hoping there's a lot of stuff to do outside of the PvP.
More things I've learned from scouring the internet is that ammo won't be just readily available; you'll have to find it only where it would make sense like a gun store, police station, etc. That certainly helps with the "realistic" part of the game, since you shouldn't really find a crate of ammo sitting around randomly on the street.
All of this sounds quite interesting and makes for a tense and excited experience at times. I just wonder how the final implementation will be like.
That's good, at least it'll make sense to go around the map and not to converge all players in some places.
Yeah, there seems to be enough converging around the Dark Zone and the extract point, it's good that you can avoid that main choke point and find goodies around the map.
